New voters’ list
THERE’S now a snowballing move in the Philippines, a nation of poll-crazy people and the bastion of democracy in this part of the world, to have the entire list of registered voters annulled.
However, proponents, including ordinary Filipinos, want this to happen after May 2025, when the nation goes to the polls anew to elect new national and local government officials.
And no less than the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) supports the proposal, which is aimed at getting rid of double/ multiple registrants and “ghost voters.”
Arwin Serrano, national coordinator of the influential PPCRV, an election watchdog group, said the proposal “is okay,” pointing out that “it has a good end-goal.”
Earlier, Comelec Chair George Garcia, a top election lawyer before he was named to the poll body, was reported to have asked Congress to pass a law ordering the conduct of a general registration of voters.
But the proposed general registration of voters ought to be conducted before the May 2028 presidential balloting.
In the Philippines, one of the first duties of the poll body is to set in motion all the multifarious preparatory election processes, including the preparation of the registry list of voters.
This is to make sure that all the Filipino people who are legally qualified to exercise the right of suffrage may be able to cast their votes to express their sovereign will.
But to defeat or suppress the voters’ will, some people resort to different practices, such as the padding of the voters’ registry list, the use of flying voters and multiple voting.
That’s why there’s now that need to come up with a new list of registered voters in the country.
